THE ENTOMOLOGIST'S 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, 
No. 1.] SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1856. [Price id. 
WHY DO THE ENTOMOLOGISTS WANT 
A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER ? 
Some who read this may say that this 
enquiry is one word too long, and that 
the “ why” should be omitted ; but none 
who have observed what is going on 
around them, and the increased, and still 
increasing, demand for immediate intel- 
ligence, will for a moment be disposed to 
ash, “ Do the Entomologists want a 
Weekly Newspaper?” They do want it, 
as is abundantly shown even by the 
number of copies already subscribed for, 
to be forwarded by post. 
But the question now chosen for dis- 
cussion is, “ Why do they want it?” 
Every year some particular insects, pre- 
viously scarce, “^urn up” in some degree 
of plenty : many of these are not con- 
fined to one special locality, but occur 
simultaneously in many distant parts of 
the country, and the Entomologist who 
catches any of these supposed rarities is 
naturally anxious to know whether he 
has had all the luck to himself, or 
whether the rarity has been scattered 
broad-cast throughout the country. The 
occurrence of Vanessa Antiopa and 
Sphinx Convolvuli in abundance, in 
particular years, sets every one on the 
qni vive to know what particular trea- 
sures are to be yielded by the year 1856: 
perhaps one will be Callimorpha Hera ; 
who know's? 
Sometimes some lucky fellow makes a 
notable discovery (it is not many years 
since sallows, sugar, and ivy were dis- 
covered, Entomologically speaking), and 
finds that by proceeding in some parti- 
cular way of search some small species 
among the Carahidce, hitherto almost 
unique, can be turned up by the score ; 
he is in a hurry to communicate his dis- 
covery, that others may make use of it, 
in order to find some allied species which 
might probably be met with in other 
localities, if hunted for in the same way ; 
The Intelligencer is just the very 
thing for him. 
Those who discover a fact in the 
economy of insect-life dou’t like to keep 
their discovery to themselves till the end 
of the season, yet to write to each of their 
intimate correspondents, detailing the 
discovery during the height of the busy 
season, requires more time than they are 
disposed to spare ; now each discoverer 
has but to write one full notice of his 
discovery and forward it to us, and in 
ten days, at the very outside, it is in 
print and in the hands of nearly every 
Entomologist in the kingdom. 
Each Entomologist will find that he 
can live quicker and do more in a season, 
from the instantaneous intercommunica- 
tion of ideas, than he could formerly do 
in two or three seasons. 
